Educated in India (at Mayo College, Ajmer and St. Stephen's College, Delhi), and subsequently in England (at King's College, London and at Cambridge University); Maroof has served in the Indian Army's Grenadiers, and Mechanized Infantry Regiments, and as an instructor at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Policy Research, Delhi, the Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington DC, and the War Studies Department, King's College, London.